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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jon Henley in Paris

Author Kamel Daoud sued over claim he used life of wife’s patient in novel

Kamel Daoud surrounded by journalists' microphones
Kamel Daoud after winning the Prix Goncourt for Houris earlier this month. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

Two complaints have been filed in Algeria against the French-Algerian author Kamel Daoud, the winner of France’s most prestigious literary award, and his wife, a therapist, alleging that they used a patient’s life story as the basis for his prize-winning novel.

The writer, the first Algerian novelist to be awarded the Prix Goncourt, won this year’s prize for his novel Houris, a fictional account of a young woman who lost her voice when an Islamist cut her throat during the country’s brutal 1992-2002 civil war.

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